Tag Archive | "profits"

Who’s Cooking Oil Prices?

Monday, February 1, 2010

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Who’s Cooking Oil Prices?

02-01-10 by dugan     The major oil companies all made less profit in 2009, but mostly because they could barely make a billion on refining and selling gasoline and diesel fuel, with demand running from down to stagnant. Yet they made plenty of billions on drilling and selling oil, which has more than doubled [...]

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Oil profits shouldn’t ‘recover’

Friday, October 30, 2009

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Oil profits shouldn’t ‘recover’

10-30-09 by dugan   Why is it that media reports on oil company profits only compare them to the previous quarter and the previous year? This week’s third-quarter profit reports for Exxon, Shell, Chevron and friends showed profits down by half or more from last year’s pigs-at-the-trough delirium. Less than $5 billion for Exxon! Less [...]

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A Yogi Berra moment in oil prices

Friday, October 16, 2009

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A Yogi Berra moment in oil prices

10-16-09 by dugan   Oil prices hit another record for the year today, at over $78 dollars for each 42-gallon barrel in futures markets. That’s well over double the late 2008 low of 32 dollars a barrel. Here are the reasons given in various news stories: Dropping dollar, threats to Nigerian oil fields, a jump [...]

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Goldman Sachs’ oil-rig loophole

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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Goldman Sachs’ oil-rig loophole

09-10-09 by dugan   Who knew that investment giant Goldman Sachs was in the oil business? I’m picturing top execs earning their tens-of-millions bonuses in hard hats and oil-streaked yellow overalls. The news is part of an otherwise depressing Wall Street Journal story on how hard, and successfully, the financial industry is lobbying against regulations [...]

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Who’s killing the U.S. dollar?

Friday, August 28, 2009

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Who’s killing the U.S. dollar?

08-28-09 by dugan   Did you hear the one about how the Bush administration used the wrong calculations last year when it declared that it wasn’t financial speculation causing the huge oil spike price?  It’s one of many newsworthy punchlines of a strong new study that describes how government handed our energy markets over to [...]

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Oil Price Spikes As Oil Profits Skid

Thursday, July 30, 2009

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Oil Price Spikes As Oil Profits Skid

Oil Price Spike, As Exxon And Others’ Profit Skids, Shows Potential For New Economy-Killing Energy Roller Coaster, Says Consumer Watchdog Profit Reports Offer More Proof That Oil Prices Are Disconnected From Actual Petroleum CONTACT: Judy Dugan, July 30, 2009 Santa Monica, CA — On the same day that Exxon Mobil reported a second quarter profit [...]

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Big about-face on speculation

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

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Big about-face on speculation

7-28-09 by dugan   Last fall, the Bush administration said all that business with oil hitting $147 a barrel and gasoline at over $4.00 a gallon was just supply and demand at work. Today–big oops! The Obama administration, politely calling the report’s data "deeply flawed," said it will issue a revised report in September saying [...]

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Hot fuel fix rises from the dead

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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Hot fuel fix rises from the dead

7-21-09 by dugan     Is it hot out? Well, so’s your gasoline. You’re losing a few cents a gallon each time you fill up at the pump. And no, with today’s insulated underground tanks, you can’t get cooler fuel in the morning. You just have to pay, while the dealer and oil companies reap [...]

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Goldman Sachs’ oil revival

Monday, July 13, 2009

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Goldman Sachs’ oil revival

7-13-09 by dugan Investment bank Goldman Sachs is about to report an eye-popping profit increase, leaving the rest of the economy in the dust. That should remind us of Goldman’s key role in the energy-price bubble that brought us $4.11 a gallon gasoline last summer, and brought Goldman a black-gold rush of profits. It’s a [...]

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Walk the walk on speculation

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Walk the walk on speculation

Gary Gensler made news today by repeating some earlier pledges to get speculative oil markets under control. He has to act soon. If oil prices can hit $70 a barrel in this economy, they'll shoot back up to $140 a barrel, with $4-a-gallon gasoline, at the slightest encouragement.

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Pickens is back for your bucks

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

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Pickens is back for your bucks

06-30-09 by dugan I choked on my black-bean enchilada when an e-mail alert popped up about a new bill in the Senate. Oklahoma oil and natural gas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who failed miserably last year at picking Californians’ pockets, is now reaching for the wallets of all Americans. Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and [...]

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Reality check on oil prices

Monday, June 22, 2009

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Reality check on oil prices

6-22-09 Nothing changed in the real world today–economy still shrinking, gasoline consumption near 10-year lows. But speculators who doubled the price of crude oil and sent prices at the pump shooting up got some kind of extraterrestrial message today. The price of crude oil dropped about $2.50 a barrel, to around $67, and gasoline started [...]

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Price roller coaster redux

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

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Price roller coaster redux

06-09-09 by dugan Oil prices hitting close to $70 a barrel today are a speculator’s paradise. Their party, of course, is being paid for by consumers at the pump and struggling businesses. Gasoline is averaging $2.62 a gallon nationally and California is within a dime of $3.00 at the pump. Haven’t we been here before? [...]

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